Education reporter

A University of Georgia parking monitor’s positive attitude has earned her a top award from her work’s professional association — staff member of the year from the International Parking Institute.

Wendy Glenn’s face is familiar to people who park in UGA’s South Campus Parking Deck, next to the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

Most weekdays she staffs one of the parking booths there, as well as during UGA football and basketball games and other special events

This week, she’s over at Parking Services headquarters on UGA’s East Campus, helping pass out around 17,000 parking permits for the upcoming semester.

And she’s always smiling.

Smiling comes naturally to Glenn, 54, but she also sees it as part of her job.

For many people, “We’re going to be the first face you see and usually the last face you see (before leaving Athens). We’re ambassadors for parking, we’re ambassadors for the university, and we’re ambassadors for Athens. We want to make sure you leave with a positive impression.”

Not everyone is happy leaving the deck, for example people who’ve parked under the impression that it’s free. And when it comes to parking, people’s passions can run high.

Those interactions can be painful — no one likes to be called stupid or yelled at, as sometimes happens to anyone who works in a UGA parking deck.

But in a way, those are Glenn’s favorite situations. She had extensive experience dealing with irate customers in a previous job, where she handled “escalated” calls at a call center for a clothing manufacturer and retailer.

And it’s a chance to do some good.

“I love those situations,” she said. “I get to help you and turn the situation around. I want to fix it and I want you to leave happy.”

The first thing to do in that situation is simply to listen, Glenn said.

In fact, the ability to listen might be the first qualification for the job.

“The main thing is just being able to interact with people,” said Glenn, a Macon native who came to Athens to attend UGA in 1978, got a business degree and has stayed ever since. She also found a husband, Max Glenn; they’ve been married 28 years and have two daughters, both attending Emory University.

Besides the ability to deal with people, Glenn and her co-workers also have to know Athens and UGA well, because people ask them for directions, said Glenn, who’s always on the lookout for lost people.

She began working for UGA Parking Services about three and a half years ago, and has since become one of the department’s top workers, as her award indicates.

“Wendy Glenn does an ordinary job extraordinarily well,” said UGA Parking Services Manager Don Walter in nominating her for the award.

According to IPI, an international trade organization for parking professionals, Glenn’s award recognizes “the contributions of individuals to our industry” and those who “exemplify professionalism.”

Glenn is the second UGA employee in two years to win the IPI Staff Member of the Year Award, and just the latest of several who’ve won top awards from IPI.

Christine Eberhart won Staff Member of the Year in 2013, and Leanne Fouche in 2010. In 2009, operations and enforcement manager Blaine Van Note won “Parking Supervisor of the Year,” and in 2011, the entire department got IPI’s nod as “Parking Organization of the Year.”

Glenn’s role in parking services has grown far beyond staffing a parking deck booth, and her official title of senior parking monitor.

She helps train other employees in dealing with difficult situations, for example, and she’s also co-leader of the department’s “Integrated Program Team,” a special projects team.

One recent special project the team undertook was to make a training video for new parking services workers; another, this summer, was actually getting out and painting the handrails and other metal surfaces in the East Campus Parking Deck, where some had begun to rust.

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